NVIDIA GRID powers Amazon cloud computing “G2 instances”

This week the folks at Amazon Web Services (AWS) have announced that they’re rolling with a new EC2 instance called “G2 instances”, running with no less a technology than NVIDIA GRID. We’ve seen NVIDIA’s GRID system pop up here and there over the past year, having originated all the way back at CES 2012 where it was first touted as a “revolutionary cloud-gaming architecture”. Here in 2013, NVIDIA GRID provides hardware virtualization of their top-level GPU technology: Kepler.

Amazon will offer the use of this processing power to developers aiming to create and stream next-generation video games and deliver high-performance 3D design tools for any device connected to the web. Amazon suggests that this system allows users to build high-performance applications and services with DirectX, OpenGL, CUDA and OpenCL “without making expensive up-front capital investments.”

According to Jeff Kowalski, Chief Technology Officer at Autodesk, access to “powerful 3D design tools from anywhere, anytime” with the ability to work with “any device without compromising performance” is something made all the more real with this Amazon/NVIDIA GRID solution.

““G2 instances for Amazon EC2 will enable us to deliver high-quality, client-agnostic 3D experiences to customers around the world without worrying about hardware performance and scalability. We also believe this will establish a new standard of design experiences that combine high-performance graphics with the vast compute and storage resources of AWS.” – Kowalski for Autodesk

As for the streaming aspect of this solution, the folks at game developer Ubisoft have been more than happy to lend their powers of simplification to the fold. Even something so multi-tiered as GRID and this Amazon implementation can be made easy enough to appreciate by a common user.

““In the coming years, games streamed from the cloud are going to grow tremendously in numbers and in quality, and we believe that AWS is becoming a new and important gaming platform. G2 instances combine the elasticity and scalability of Amazon EC2 with the GPU’s massive rendering power, allowing developers to cost-effectively deliver immersive and engaging entertainment experiences to a multitude of lower-capability client devices, such as Kindle Fire, iPad and Android tablets.” – Patrick Allaire, Technology Director, Cloud, Ubisoft

Keep an eye on NVIDIA GRID through our NVIDIA GRID tag portal, dear readers – this technology is going to be a big part of the next generation in gaming as well as remote computing. Stay tuned for more uses for the virtualized power of the GRID sooner than later!